Bakery Days

Over the holidays, my sister gave me a lovely cookbook, The Spice Bible by Jane Lawson. Since receiving this wonderful book, I have cooked approximately 80% of my meals from these mouthwatering pages. Sectioned off by spice types, I’ve been able to cull through my collection, reinvent old dishes and experiment with never heard spices.

Today was a very odd day (*edit: this post was meant for yesterday, but my power adapter decided to put me on time-out). I left the house early this morning with the sun shining. About an hour later, it was raining (in some parts of the city, hailing), and by evening a most perfect rainbow starting from Alcatraz made an arch over my path home. The glorious evening didn’t last long because as soon as I settled in for the evening, I heard the tip-tappings of heavy raindrops on my windowpane.  The weather couldn’t seem to decide and was ping ponging between doom-n-gloom and a happy storybook ending.

This was the perfect time to cozy-up in front of a warm stove. I had gone to the farmer’s market over the weekend in anticipation of making chicken mole from The Spice Bible. When I opened the book and gathered my ingredients on the counter I realized that I had two things going against me:

1. I did a poor job writing up my market list. The list included only half of the items I needed for my chicken mole, and the other half consisted of produce for a dish I was planning to make next week. Sigh…
2. I was feeling pretty lazy. After re-reading the directions, I realized that this recipe required more effort than I cared to use.

Not one to admit defeat so easily, I decided to do what I do best: improvise. I decided that the spices that I lacked weren’t necessary since I had enough of the other seasonings and substitute to give my dish flavor and there were a few steps I could skip. After cooking and sitting down to eat, I realized two things:

1. The combination of peppers and chocolate created an amazing spicy and sweet flavor that danced on my tongue.
2. If this is my lazy attempt at cooking, imagine what I could do with full effort!

Below is my improvised, lazy-version chicken mole recipe. It was pretty quick to whip up–somewhere between one and two hours to cook. It was well worth it, and it’s enough to last the rest of the week.

Chicken Mole
Serves 6

1 brown onion 4 garlic cloves 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces 6 oregano sprigs 6 Italian parsley sprigs 1 tablespoon pepper	Cut onion into quarters and garlic cloves into slices and add them to a large saucepan with chicken pieces, oregano, parsley, and pepper. Cover with cold water, add 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is almost cooked through. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
6 dried mulatto chilies, chopped 4 dried pasilla chilies, chopped ½ dried small chipolte chili, chopped ¼ cup dried cranberries	Meanwhile, dry-fry the chilies for 20 seconds in a hot frying pan, then transfer to a bowl. Cover with 3 cups boiling water and soak for 15 minutes. Soak the raisins in hot water for 20 minutes, then drain.
1 pound tomatoes, chopped 1 slice day old bread, crust removed 1 teaspoon cumin powder	Blend the tomatoes in a food processor until smooth. Add the oregano, bread, raisins and chilies with their soaking water, and blend until smooth.
1 brown onions 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon cinnamon ¼ teaspoon sugar 1 ½ tablespoon chopped Mexican or unsweetened chocolate 2 large handfuls cilantro leaves, finely chopped	Dice onion. In a heavy-bottomed frying pan, large enough to fit all the chicken pieces in one layer, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Cook the onion for 5 minutes to soften. Add the tomato mixture, cinnamon, and sugar. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Add the chocolate and the reserve cooking liquid from the chicken. Bring to a simmer, and add the chicken. Cook, covered, over low heat for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is very tender. Stir in cilantro.
	Season and serve with white rice and tortillas.

Editor’s note: the master recipe that this originates from, The Spice Bible, is sure to be more fantastic.

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Tagged chicken mole, recipes